MaxTheMogg

'AiRen-SC' started on a spur of the moment  7 years ago as a bit of a fun, temporary place to share a doodle or two by a grumpy, aging Sixties' left-over, who couldn't draw a stick man if it were a matter of life and death and who'd just discovered this new fancy-schmancy thing called 3D to piddle about with.

Y'know how it is with the old pair of slippers - they no longer fit, you can't imagine what possible reason at the time you  might had to go for that particluar shade of neon tartan blue velour,  for the last few years the only usage they got has been to serve as the family dog's slobber patch under the sofa, and yet when your kids ask you why you still hang on to them you can earnestly think of no good reason why.
AiRen-SC has outlived its shelf-life, it has long outlasted its intended run, it is now way past its sell-by date, and it is time to retire the poor sod in the current shape and form and replace it with something with a better fit. (That I am also moving to another country kinda makes it as good - or as bad, whichever way one takes it - a time for the wholesale change as it can possibly get)

So, while 'AiRen-SC' is heading off to the Great DA Waste-Basket in the Sky, something else will take up its place. As soon as I settle in my new home. Scout's honour

In the meantime, something I wish I came up with myself as my perfect DA ID, a gem by the guy with much, much, much more talent (and less hair), than I could ever hope to have.

I'm off to get a smoke and a drink, and do not plan to stop until the day I finally peg it. Orban, Kaczinski, Brexit, now Trump, Hofer, Le Pen & Wilders next year... no point staying sober anymore.
We're all pretty much fucked now.

"The lamps are going out all over the world, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time"
Sir Edward Grey, British foreign secretary from 1905 to 1916, quote adapted

I've finally limped back onto the Internetz and trying to catch up is quite a challenge. Been ill - what started as an annoying cough turned into multiple viral and bacterial infection that led to blood poisoning and emergency medical attention. Now finally on the mend, with the mental note to myself: 'For the future reference - if that nice lady in the white coat asks you if you're allergic to penicillin, it would probably be  prudent to avoid an enthusiastic 'No!' for an answer.'
So, yes. Not the smoothest start of the year, but that's life. Never boring.

I am not as often online as I used to be, been travelling around with more and more urgent need to find us a new home, and that takes a lot of time and resources. So when not in and out of the planes and hire cars in places I've only seen on Google search, I teach at the local music school. It's fun, kids are cool, it pays, and I get to jam as loudly as I want every Monday after-hours in the drums room by the school office,  with one native Virginian, one Scotsman and one Englishman, as crazy as each other (classic Nirvana and fusion jazz? Have you tried it? Neither have I, but it ain't half-as-bad as you might think).

That doesn't mean I've hanged my arty-farty doodler's hat and quit, just that it will be a while longer before I can post something appropriate here.

Until then, something different from my usual stuff, posted elsewhere

Between the eye test results, preparing the house for sale and search for the home as far away from this accursed island, I've been quietly paying my tributes to the places I'll miss in the earnest when we finally move away. The 'vintage look' Photoshop treatment is just because I miss them already, because it already feels like a very, very long time ago, in some other life, when this particular patch of England was, and felt like my home.